If you have a query, write to: Ask the Experts, Room 301, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email experts@mailonsunday.co.uk. Please do not send original documents.

A. C. writes: I recently bought company shares after saving in a Sharesave scheme and the current valuation is about £20,500. My investment over the five years was £13,750. If I sell the shares, what is my capital gains tax liability?

M. C. replies: On sale, capital gains tax is payable on the difference between the amount paid for the shares and the sale proceeds.

In your case, the gain would be covered by the annual exempt amount of £10,900, so there should be no tax to pay.

But if the gain had exceeded the exempt amount, tax would be payable at 18 per cent if it fell within your basic-rate income tax band, and 28 per cent above that.

If tax was potentially payable, you could consider a transfer of shares to your spouse to take advantage of their annual CGT exemption.

Subject to Isa limits – £11,520 in the current tax year – Sharesave shares can be transferred to a tax-friendly Isa without a CGT charge if this is done within 90 days of acquiring the shares.

A cut in salary

M. N. writes: I switched from full-time to part-time working from April this year and, owing to my receiving two pensions, was taxed at the basic rate prior to switching. Do I now have to inform Revenue & Customs of this change and of my reduced salary?

P.H.replies: Revenue & Customs can only get tax deductions right when it is kept up to date about your circumstances.

As your employer and the pension payers should now be reporting to the taxman in ‘real time’ on payments made to you, it should know about your drop in income.

But it doesn’t hurt to check that the Revenue has acted on your change of circumstances.

If your pension income and any other coding adjustments use up your personal allowance, your earnings should still be taxed at the basic rate. If not, you will be issued with a new coding notice allocating the unused part against your salary.

We want to put our daughter back into wills

M.W. writes: When my daughter was getting divorced, my wife and I changed our wills using a codicil so that in the event of our deaths she would not receive any benefit which could be used as part of her settlement.

Now the divorce has been finalised we want to revoke it. How do we do this?

P. B.-K. replies: Any testamentary document – a will or codicil – can be revoked, either by destroying it or by signing another testamentary document expressly revoking the earlier one.

The new document must be signed following the same formalities as the original.